


Unexpected

by pertainstothesea



Series: Soulmates In the Attic [1]
Category: Check Please (webcomic)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, Soulmate au where when you turn 16 you find 1000 roaches or a vision of your soulmate in the attic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-08
Updated: 2017-08-08
Packaged: 2018-12-13 00:05:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11747982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pertainstothesea/pseuds/pertainstothesea
Summary: Dex is expecting to find one thousand roaches in his attic.





	Unexpected

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by a post from @onethousandroaches on tumblr: a universe where when you reach a certain birthday, you go up to your attic and find either 1000 roaches or a vision of your soulmate. 
> 
> Some fun Teen Insecurities™ in here!

Will woke up on his sixteenth birthday and grabbed the industrial strength Raid that he had placed on his bedside table the night before. His mom was probably downstairs already, cooking birthday pancakes and waiting for him to come downstairs to tell her about his soulmate. Will was expecting to come downstairs and call an exterminator.

He wasn’t being pessimistic, he told himself, but realistic. He knew he didn’t have a ton to offer in the romance department. Looking in the mirror, all he could see was a collection of flaws that would make him the joke in any movie.

Gangly and awkward from the start of a growth spurt, he had just started Accutane, and while it hadn’t done anything for the masses of painful pimples hiding the already-splotchy freckles on his face yet, it was drying out his lips until they cracked and bled through the layers of chapstick he kept applying. His team kept evolving his nickname, going from “Pizza Face” to “Papa John” to “Little Caesar.” He laughed along with them, but each time the nickname was used he felt a little more hopeless. At least it was marginally better than when they had been focused on his big ears, calling him “Dumbo.”

He looked like a stock character of an Awkward Teen™ but even more awkward, okay? Nobody needed to tell him that he wasn’t soulmate material. Nobody was saddled with a soulmate nicknamed “Domino’s.”

Will shook the can as he pulled down the trapdoor to the attic. He winced in anticipation, but 1000 roaches weren’t spilling down the ladder yet. Maybe they were all in a corner or something. He climbed the ladder tentatively, can raised in his hand and ready to deploy at the sight of the first roach. With each step he grew more nervous, but still no roaches appeared.

When he pulled himself up and turned around, he almost fell backwards through the floor. No roaches. Instead, a vision of a boy around his age was floating a few inches above the unfinished beams. Some small part of Will that wasn’t frozen with shock was trying to drink in all the details. The boy was cute. Really cute. A yellow beanie covered most of his curly hair. His eyes were green behind black plastic glasses. His dark skin was clear for a teenager. The vision gave him a small smile, showing braces. He disappeared before Will could read the logo on his prep-school blazer.

Will stood frozen for a second, trying to process it all. He had a soulmate. The can of bug killer slipped out of his hand and fell down the ladder. He shook himself out of his reverie and slowly walked downstairs. His grin spread over his face. He had a soulmate! He couldn’t wait to meet him in the real world!

_X_

Derek Nurse was not looking forward to meeting his soulmate. Whatever forces had conspired to make the world show people visions of their soulmate at sixteen was not kind to him. There had not been a single more awkward age in his life, and he was pretty sure that his soulmate had to have just decided not to bother.

One of his teeth had been knocked out when he was a freshman in a hockey game, and the dentist had insisted on straightening out all the rest of his teeth before they installed a fake one, so he was stuck with a missing front tooth AND braces. Plain silver ones, too, because his orthodontist didn’t believe in fun colors. For three full years. And then there were the glasses. When he got them, he thought they were cool, or at least cooler than his old plain metal frames. But then the hipster jokes started. And he wasn’t entirely sure how the soulmate visions dealt with clothes, but he hoped his soulmate hadn’t seen him in his dumb uniform. He looked like the nerd emoji and he knew it, okay?

His soulmate had looked nice in the vision. He was a ginger guy, pretty pale and freckly, around Derek’s height. Maybe he wouldn’t make fun of Derek’s hipster glasses, since he was wearing a flannel in the vision. That was kind of hipster right? Appearances aside, Derek hoped that he and his soulmate would have something in common. When he met him, hopefully they'd be able to just forget about their awkward teen selves and just fall in love.


End file.
